Welcome to Tuesday. Young activists in El Salvador seek inspiration from St. Oscar Romero in denouncing injustice and looking for social change. The Wall Street Journal's recent op-ed deriding Dr. Jill Biden's academic achievements has rankled one NCR columnist.
As El Salvador President Nayib Bukele's administration faces more and more international criticism for alleged authoritarianism and for putting the country's young democracy in danger, a movement of young activists is seeking inspiration from St. Óscar Romero in denouncing injustice and opening new ways toward social change.
Generación Romero (Generation Romero, in Spanish) was created in 2015 as a network of faith communities, social movements and groups of young activists who identify with the prophetic voice of Romero, the archbishop of the capital of San Salvador, who was murdered in 1980. Romero was beatified by Pope Francis in 2015 and finally canonized in 2018.
Andreas Hugentobler, a Swiss-born theologian who is one of Generación Romero's founders, told NCR that the group came together initially at the time of beatification.
"Several popular movements traditionally commemorated the day of his martyrdom, March 24, and wished to coordinate with the church the celebration of his beatification," said Hugentobler. "But we didn't have any response and decided to do our own parallel festivity."
You can read more of the story here.
The Wall Street Journal's op-ed by Joseph Epstein, titled "Is there a doctor in the White House? Not if you need an MD" ranks among the "most misogynistic screeds" NCR columnist Phyllis Zagano has ever seen.
The piece, which has gone viral on social media, suggests to Dr. Jill Biden that she drop the honorific while she is in the White House as the First Lady. It was defended by the Journal's op-ed editor, Paul A. Gigot, despite outrage from women scholars.
"Not only does Gigot see nothing wrong, he thinks strategists for the president-elect are behind the outcry, on social media and elsewhere," writes Zagano. "Aside from the fact that Gigot seems to find a wily Democrat under every rock, I doubt he is capable of understanding what misogyny means."
You can read more of Zagano's column here.
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Final thoughts
Join us tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. Central on Facebook Live as we announce our 2020 Newsmaker of the Year. NCR executive editor Heidi Schlumpf will host child advocate and best-selling author Mark Kennedy Shriver, NCR national correspondent Christopher White and NCR political columnist Michael Sean Winters to talk about our decision. Follow NCR on Facebook to keep up-to-date with all of our news and events.
Until Wednesday,
Stephanie Yeagle
NCR Production/Online Editor
[email protected]
Twitter: @ncrSLY
